The potato disease Dickeya can be detected by laboratory testing — but is there enough of it present to justify the higher costs? That is the question facing Canadian Seed Potato Growers exporting to the United States who are increasingly asked for the test.

With clean seed potatoes recognized as the best defense against this new blackleg-causing pathogen, the demand for Dickeya testing is growing fast.

New Brunswick’s Shawn Paget is among the new generation of potato farmers working hard to ensure that the industry remains an integral part of Canadian agriculture.

Representatives of the Canadian Government announced an investment of $1.83 million in a Canadian-led international research effort to give potato farmers a technological edge in predicting and preventing yield losses in their fields and in storage.

The potato crop in New Brunswick has recovered from a late start and is 'looking extremely good right now', according to Potatoes New Brunswick executive director Matt Hemphill in an article published in the Bugle-Observer

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There is still no word on why Henk Tepper of New Brunswick is in custody in Lebanon.

A New Brunswick potato farmer has been detained in Lebanon. Grand Falls-area farmer Henk Tepper of Tobique Farms has been arrested upon entry to the country that sits on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.